


No One Gets Left Behind

by LilBittyMonster



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Episode 26 spoilers, Gen, and will probably get overwritten come tomorrow, but i need some therapy here, this is just me trying to deal with feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 19:10:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15346629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilBittyMonster/pseuds/LilBittyMonster
Summary: This was a lot more dramatic in my head, apologies, but I needed to get it outI'm ontumblrif you wanna come cry with me





	No One Gets Left Behind

The last of the heavy locks fell to the ground as Caleb was engulfed in a tight blue embrace.

“Caleb…” Jester said into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and held her back just as fiercely.

“You are not hurt too badly?” he asked, pulling back and holding her by the shoulders.

She wiped at a tear and shook her head before moving on to hug Beau. Fjord and Caleb clasped each other’s forearms, and Caleb noticed that the half orc had a new scar across his right cheek. He greeted Yasha in the same fashion. Her mismatched eyes were weary and dark bags shadowed her pale skin, but they were warm nonetheless.

“Hey, where’s Molly?” Jester asked.

“Yeah, I was wonderin’ where he was,” Fjord added.

Beau, Caleb, and Nott all met each other’s eyes. Nott just shrugged, and Beau’s mouth twisted at the corners before she ducked her head.

“Guys…?” Jester prompted softly.

Caleb took a deep breath. “Mollymauk, he-” his throat constricted around the words.

Yasha looked from Beau to Caleb, her expression drawn. “No.”

Beau hid her mouth with her hand, and Caleb could see her shoulders shake slightly.

“No,” Yasha repeated, as if her conviction could change reality. Caleb wished it could.

“What happened,” Fjord asked solemnly.

“We were going after a slaver caravan, and we were fighting them, and then…” Nott trailed off helplessly.

“ _Caleb_ ,” Yasha asked in Celestial, a single tear trailing down her cheek. He didn’t remember ever seeing the aasmiar cry before. “ _Tell me what happened_.”

“ _He was protecting Beau_ ,” Caleb managed. “ _He used a- he used his blood magic, and it took all he had left. Lorenzo put a glaive through his chest_.” A tear of his own slid through his beard as he spoke.

Yasha closed her eyes, spilling more tears and smearing the last of her face paint. “I’m going to kill that motherfucker,” she swore coldly.

“Where is he? Where’s Molly’s body?” Jester sniffled, wiping at her face with a tattered sleeve.

“Jester, it’s been too long-”

“Maybe it’s not, Beau!” she shot back with a defiant swish of her tail. “I can at least try to bring him back!”

“Are you sure you’re strong enough? I mean, you’ve all been locked up here for a while now,” Nott pointed out gently.

“Yeah, I’m plenty strong,” the tiefling said, still fighting against the tears.

“We might not get him, though. We might get Lucien or, or some other person entirely,” Caleb pointed out. “We don’t know if he even wants to come back.”

“I know, but-but….” Her face finally crumpled as her voice broke. “But I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

“None of us did,” Beau said softly. “It happened too fast.”

“Sometimes you don’t get to say goodbye, Jes.” Fjord’s expression was far away. “Not every parting is a good or clean one.”

“So what, you guys think we should just not do anything? You don’t want him back?” Jester’s voice was coloured with anger as well as grief now.

“Of course I want him back, we all- he is our friend, Jester, but perhaps it is not worth getting our hopes up,” Caleb replied sadly.

“Yasha? What d’you think, you knew him the best,” Fjord asked with arms folded.

Yasha broke her distant stare at the wall to refocus on the group. “I think,” she said slowly, turning to Jester, “that if you are going to try to bring him back from. From death. That I should be there.”

Jester nods quickly, the little silver chains on her horns swinging back and forth. “Okay, okay okay……...just gotta…..gotta get some stuff first…” she mumbled absently under her breath. “Anyone else coming? I need his body.”

“Yeah, I’ll go,” Beau said after a beat. “Besides, I need to give him his stupid coat back.”

“Fjord?” Her expression was painfully open and pleading.

“Yeah, I’ll go. Gotta pay my respects, at the very least.”

Jester looked to Nott and Caleb. The latter gave a very small nod, and Nott replied with a small “We’ll be there, too.”

The group moved out of the dingy cellar, Nott and Caleb falling to the rear. Caleb lightly rested his hand on Nott’s shoulder as he slowed their pace further.

“What happens if this does not work?” he hissed to the goblin.

“She should at least try, don’t you think?”

“Yes, but what if it does not work?”

Nott paused, choosing her words carefully. “I think that if it does work, we should be there for Molly. And if it doesn’t, we need to be there for Jester. And Yasha.”

Caleb chewed on that as they walked, not missing how they had all linked arms or were holding onto shoulders so that they were one single unit.

“No one gets left behind,” he murmured under his breath. Nott nodded vigorously, squeezing his hand as they caught up to their family.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a lot more dramatic in my head, apologies, but I needed to get it out
> 
> I'm on [tumblr](https://lilbittymonster.tumblr.com/) if you wanna come cry with me


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